Argentina ensure Copa runs over with skill and style

Argentina's long wait for a 15th Copa América victory is likely to end tomorrow night if they can maintain the form shown in the previous rounds of the competition when they meet Brazil in the final in Maracaibo, Venezuela. The 63-year-old Alfio Basile, who returned as Argentina's head coach after last summer's World Cup disaster, will send out a combination of veterans and young stars to confront a side managed by Carlos Dunga and a win would reinforce the views of those who believe them to be currently the best side in international football.

While Dunga's patchwork Brazil were fortunate to make it to the final after beating Uruguay in a shoot-out decided by a penalty that should have been retaken, Argentina swept past Mexico with the kind of imperious performance that has characterised them during the past month. A 3-0 victory, crowned by a superlative goal from Lionel Messi, kept up their average of three goals a game, maintained despite the loss of Hernán Crespo, their chief striker, to injury early in the tournament.

Basile was in charge of Argentina for their last two wins in the Copa América, in 1991 and 1993. When the call came to take over the national side from José Pekerman in the summer of 2006, he was celebrating a season in which he had led Boca Juniors to victories in the domestic championship and the South American super cup.

His squad for Venezuela included one major surprise: the return of Juan Sebastián Verón. Thoroughly discredited in English eyes after his expensive and unsuccessful periods with Manchester United and Chelsea, Verón returned to Argentina last year and, at the age of 32, guided Estudiantes de la Plata, his first club, to the league title. Basile uses him as a kind of midfield pivot, a role that does not expose his lack of pace.

Juan Román Riquelme, another prodigal son, is Basile's playmaker. After returning to Boca on loan from Villarreal in January, Riquelme has enjoyed an outstanding season. For Argentina he is playing slightly ahead of Verón, with Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Mascherano sitting back at the base of the midfield, while the defence rests on the experience of Roberto Ayala, Javier Zanetti and a rejuvenated Gabriel Heinze. The composition of the attack, however, was more problematic when Crespo was ruled out. Looking for the right man to play alongside Messi, Basile tried a couple of experiments before settling on Carlos Tevez, who came on at half-time in the quarter-final against Peru, when the match was goalless, and lit the fuse of a 4-0 victory. Starting the semi-final against Mexico, he played a vital role once again.

But it was Messi's goal, the gentlest of chips over the head and under the crossbar of Oswaldo Sánchez, that sent Argentina's supporters into delirium. Unlike Pekerman, Basile had no qualms about thrusting the 20-year-old into his starting line-up and the reward has come with a series of spellbinding moments from the Barcelona forward.

As Messi and Tevez add the final touches to short-passing combinations that cover the entire width and length of the pitch, they evoke the memory of the great goal scored by Argentina against Serbia and Montenegro last summer, when Cambiasso's shot completed a mesmerising 24-pass move. Under Basile they appear intent on turning that resplendent moment into a basic approach.

Brazil will face the challenge lacking not just Ronaldinho and Kaká, who preferred to go on holiday rather than take part in the tournament, but also Gilberto Silva, their captain, whose late caution against Uruguay excludes him from the final. So far, apart from an early hat-trick by the inconsistent Robinho, Brazil have done little to impress; perhaps only Diego, the little midfielder from Werder Bremen, and Doni, their athletic goalkeeper, would stand a chance of inclusion in Argentina's line-up.

Nor does the excellence of Basile's side look like a flash in the pan. In Canada, where the Under-20 World Cup is taking place, the junior Argentina side beat Poland 3-1 on Friday night to reach the quarter-finals thanks to a performance distinguished by the same elegant, patient, rhythmical interplay, with the gifted forwards Sergio Agüero of Atlético Madrid and Angel Di María of Rosario Central playing the parts of Tevez and Messi. After a troubled time, in which a ruined economy played its part, Argentina are finally emerging from the shadows.